Despite disclaimers by the national wind energy association, a Guelph-area researcher stands by the results of a 2010 study which he co-authored — one of the first to link industrial wind turbines and poor health.Jeff Aramini, a Fergus, Ont. epidemiologist, is the co-author of the 2010 study, Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines Noise on Sleep and Health, which found the closer people were to the turbines, the more susceptible they were to health problems such as sleeplessness, head aches and problems around mental health.The study compared sleep and general health outcomes between 81 participants living close to industrial wind turbines, between 375 and 1,400 metres, and further away, between 3.3 and 6.6 kilometres, in two Maine communities — Mars Hill and Vinalhaven. Validated questionnaires were used to collect information on sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and general health, together with psychiatric disorders, attitude and demographics.“The bottom line is that people that were closer experienced more of these health effects,” said Aramini, CEO of Intelligent Health Solutions and a former manager with the Public Health Agency of Canada. “We didn’t find any association with physical health ... but a strong association with impaired mental health to the point where the people living closer experienced significantly higher chance of being at risk for clinical depression.”

Province Knew of Health Effects from TurbinesReleased Documents Show Ministry Aware of Concerns as Far Back as 2006, by Amanda Moore, Niagara This Week, posted February 13, 2013

Documents released through a Freedom of Information request from an Orangeville resident reveal the government was aware of adverse health effects caused by industrial wind turbines as far back as 2006.While Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak says he is not shocked to learn the government kept this information from the public in relation to the 200-megaWatt Melancthon EcoPower Centre (located in Amaranth and Melancthon Township, near Shelburne, Ont.), he says he is disappointed.“I wasn’t surprised. Concerns have been raised across Ontario and in other jurisdictions,” says Hudak, whose own riding of Niagara West-Glanbrook is poised for the installation of several industrial wind turbines.“What it is, is disappointing. It appears as through they were trying to cover something up.”In the released document, ministry officials report “complaints of adverse health effects by area residents are for the most part justified.“MOE Provincial Officers have attended at several of the complainant’s [sic] residences and have confirmed that despite the noise emissions apparently complying with the applicable standard ... that the noise emissions are in fact causing material discomfort to the residents in and around their homes,” reads the document, written by provincial officer Gary Tomlinson.

According to the ministry, to develop the guidelines for noise limits, ministry scientists and engineers consulted with local community members and noise experts including representatives from major acoustical consulting firms. At the time of the Melancthon project, there were no minimum setback distances, only a provincial noise guideline of 40 decibels, which was maintained in the Act.The documents state that “at least two families have moved out of their homes due to noise impacts” and that the MOE was aware of “at least six cases where the wind developer bought out resident’s [sic] homes to address and silence their ongoing concerns.”

Excerpts:"ConclusionsWe conclude that the noise emissions of IWTs disturbed the sleep and caused daytime sleepiness and impaired mental health in residents living within 1.4 kmof the two IWT installations studied. Industrial wind turbine noise is a further source of environmental noise, with the potential to harm human health. Current regulations seem to be insufficient to adequately protect the human population living close to IWTs. Our research suggests that adverse effects are observed at distances even beyond 1 km. Further research is needed to determine at what distances risks become negligable, as well as to better estimate the portion of the population suffering from adverse effects at a given distance."Click here to read more online ...Click here to download a copy of the report

TORONTO — Ontario's energy minister may have failed to properly consider how industrial wind turbines affect health, a Toronto divisional court heard Monday. Ian Hanna, 56, a resident of Prince Edward County, is claiming the province did not consult qualified medical experts before allowing the turbines to go up 550 metres from any home. "The government simply is not looking at the medical implications on human health," Eric Gillespie, the lawyer representing Hanna, told a panel of three judges. Gillespie said at the time the 550-metre rule was put in place, there was "scientific uncertainty" about the health effects of turbines. The minister should have either halted development plans until there was concrete scientific evidence, or consulted medical professionals on what distance they would be comfortable with in light of the uncertainty. Gillespie said that although the ministry did consult acoustical engineering experts and weighed a number of issues, there is no evidence that health implications were considered. "You must have someone who is properly qualified to make that decision," he said. The Society for Wind Vigilance says some people living near Ontario's 700 turbines report sleep problems, stress, headaches and difficulty concentrating due to the noise. Click here to read more...

In recent years, the burgeoning wind energy industry has been able to count as an ally public health officials in Ontario — but that may soon change.Dr. Hazel Lynn, the chief medical officer of health in Grey and Bruce counties, is laying the groundwork for what would be the first Ontario-based study to examine the link between wind turbines and ill health.Lynn was asked by her health board to come up with a way and will present options for a study when the board next meets in January.She comes to the task with a mindset startlingly different from the public health hierarchy in Ontario — she believes the absence of proof is the start of the debate and not the end.Turbines emit low-pitched sounds, some so low they’re sensed only as vibration. Some turbine opponents argue those vibrations disrupt the body’s normal rhythms and cause a long list of ailments. An American doctor, Nina Pierpont, reported complaints of headaches, ringing in the ears, dizziness, nausea, rapid heart rate, irritability and problems with concentration and memory.“It’s really difficult to show causality from environmental exposure,” Lynn said, citing the decades it took to prove cigarettes caused cancer.A family doctor, whose work took her from British Columbia to Nigeria before becoming a medical officer of health a decade ago, Lynn has seen how people suffer after wind turbines go up, especially in and around the village of Ripley in Bruce County, where she estimates 15% of the population reports ill effects from turbines such as difficulty sleeping and headaches. Click here to read more...

Unity of Knowledge - Leading experts pool their most recent understanding of the harm of industrial wind turbines on human health by Rick ConroyWellington Timespublished November 5, 2010

Piece by piece, presentation by presentation, the foundation upon which industrial wind industry and much of Ontario’s Green Energy Act sits was taken apart and dismantled this past weekend.The industrial wind turbine business was always on shaky ground. It has been promoted by governments eager to be seen to be doing something about the western world’s reliance on fossil fuels—oil, gas and coal. In many respects wind energy policy has been a public relations exercise fuelled by governments’ willingness to spill billions of taxpayer dollars into developer’s pockets. They do so with a mix of wishful thinking and willful blindness in the expectation that technology leaps will fill in the significant operational gaps before most folks realize intermittent generating sources don’t work on a large scale.None of these folks anticipated, however, that industrial wind turbines would actually make people sick. After the first international symposium in Picton on the weekend, there can be little doubt remaining.Several analogies were made about how the fight against the harmful effects of smoking tobacco began with just a few voices in the medical and scientific community. It would take decades, however, before governments would listen and begin to take action. The esteemed participants of the Picton gathering fervently hope it doesn’t take as long for governments and the broader public to understand the harm caused by industrial wind turbines.Dr. Bob McMurtry, a physician and former deputy minister of health in Ontario, gathered doctors, scientists and researchers from around the world to Picton in reveal their findings and share the latest information on the impact of industrial wind turbines in what he termed a “consilience” or unity of knowledge.WHAT WE LEARNEDSeveral alarming messages emerged. Every animal with a functioning hearing organ, including humans, is at risk of being affected by the low-frequency pulsating sound emitted by industrial wind turbines. Those most acutely affected tend to be disposed to motion sickness or car sickness— but even those without these symptoms may be responding to the noise, whether they are aware of it or not.The low-frequency and subsonic (below the hearing range) noise from wind turbines has a demonstrable effect on the ear and hearing mechanisms. The most acute symptoms include nausea, dizziness and sleep disturbance. It is now becoming evident, however, that even those who don’t suffer these particular symptoms are likely realizing some harm. These hearing mechanisms are closely related to language development, learning and cognitive organization— as the fine components of the ear become stressed, learning in children becomes impaired, concentration becomes harder for adults, and sleep is disrupted.Evidence was presented that people likely don’t “get used to” wind turbine noise. Even those who claim not to hear noise appear to endure physiological stress related to the pulsating low frequency noise.Among the more worrisome bits of information gleaned from the weekend conference was that current assumptions of safe setbacks are likely wrong. Many opponents of large scale industrial wind factories have pressed for setbacks from homes of at least two kilometres. (Ontario’s Green Energy Act prescribes setbacks of just 550 metres.) But studies done by sound experts John Harrison and Richard James now show that in some conditions— over water and rocky terrain and beneath low cloud cover—the low-frequency noise can travel up to 15 kilometres. Click here to read more...

Wind Turbines are Hazardous to Human Health by Alec Salt, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine

Wind turbines such as those currently being constructed in rural areas generate high levels of infrasound noise. This is very low frequency noise (sound waves of less than 20 cycles per second) that you cannot hear. Even though you cannot hear the sound, it is easily detected by the ear at the levels that are produced and can have effects on the body that profoundly disturb some individuals.The situation is somewhat similar to ultraviolet (UV) light and the eye. We cannot see ultraviolet light but we all understand that it can affect us profoundly, causing sunburn, photokeratitis (also known as snow blindness or welder's flash) and cataracts. For UV light, there are simple ways that the damaging effects can be avoided using sunscreens and eye protection. For infrasound exposure in your home, there is currently NO WAY TO PROTECT YOURSELF. Although double glazing and door seals will reduce the levels of the sounds you can hear, they have little influence on the infrasound level in the home. Infrasound is a slowly-changing pressure wave, that can only be blocked by completely sealing the house, making it completely airtight. The occupants would then slowly suffocate.The effects of wind turbine infrasound build up slowly on people. For most, there are no effects while in the vicinity of wind turbines for short periods (such as the workday) and when higher levels of other sounds (i.e. sound you can hear) are present. The problem arises when people try and sleep in their homes in the presence of wind turbine noise. The audible sounds are reduced by the house structure, so the room may be fairly quiet, but the sound becomes dominated by the infrasound that the person cannot hear. The infrasound is detected by the ear and has subtle influences on the body that we are only just beginning to understand. It can cause dysequilibrium (like sea-sickness, but not induced by movement), tinnitus, a sensation of fullness in the ear and worst of all, disturb sleep, probably by stimulation of subconscious neural pathways to the brain. People undergo repeated arousals from sleep (brief partial awakenings that are not remembered) and repeated awakenings when sleeping in such an environment that leave the individual stressed and unrefreshed. Sleep disturbance over a prolonged period is known to be extremely hazardous to health, causing mental changes, high blood pressure, diabetes and increased mortality. Click here to read more...

Wind Turbine Syndromeby Nina Pierpont posted by WCO October 29, 2010

Wind turbines majestically threshing the wind — what marvels of human engineering! To stand beneath one is breathtaking. To live near one can be hell on earth. So I have been told by countless people who suddenly find themselves grievously ill from the subtle yet devastating infrasonic jackhammer generated by these “clean, green, renewable energy” giants.The explanation may be tucked away in the inner ear in a cluster of tiny, interconnected organs with a remarkable evolutionary pedigree. The vestibular organs — the semicircular canals, saccule, and utricle — function as Mother Nature’s gyroscope, controlling our sense of motion, position, and balance, including our spatial thinking. (Remember when you got carsick as a kid? Or seasick?)Humans share these enigmatic organs with a host of other backboned species, including fish and amphibians. Some scientists indeed see them as a kind of pan-species master key for an extraordinarily broad range of brain function — amounting to a sixth sense.One of those functions, it now appears, is to register and respond to the sounds and vibrations (infrasound) we don’t consciously hear, but feel — as from wind turbines. For many people, the response is swift and disastrous.Sometimes it’s advantageous being a country doctor. Six years ago I began hearing health complaints from people living in the shadow of these gigantic turbines. At first it was merely local and regional, then global. Tellingly, virtually everyone described the same constellation of symptoms. Symptoms that were being triggered, I began to suspect, by vestibular dysregulation. (1) Sleep disturbance. Not simply awakened, but awakening in a panic (“flight or fight” response). (2) Headache. (3) Tinnitus. (4) Ear pressure. (5) Dizziness. (6) Vertigo. (7) Nausea. (8) Visual blurring. (9) Tachycardia. (10) Irritability. (11) Problems with concentration and memory. (12) Panic episodes associated with sensations of internal pulsation or quivering, which arise while awake or asleep. (This latter involving other, non-vestibular organs of balance, motion, and position sense.)None of these people had experienced these symptoms to any appreciable degree before the turbines became operational. All said their symptoms disappeared rapidly whenever they spent several days away from home. All said the symptoms reappeared when they returned home.Many had supported the wind farm project before all this happened. Now, some became so ill, they literally abandoned their homes — locked the door and left. Click here to read more...

The Grey-Bruce Medical Officer of Health believes the setbacks for wind turbines should be longer.Dr. Hazel Lynn told Huron-Kinloss Twp. council at the Aug. 16 township meeting that she would recommend longer setbacks for wind turbines. She said she thinks it's wrong that municipal councils are unable to determine the setbacks.Lynn said that, within buildings, Low Frequency Noise (LFN) which comes from wind turbines, could cause health affects, such as inner-ear problems. She said those affects would be less if the setbacks were longer than the provincial setback of 550 metres. She added that symptoms are the same around the world but the problem is that not much is known about wind turbines. "I think we should stop putting (wind turbines) in until we know more about them," said Lynn, at the council meeting. Click here to read more...

Wind Turbines Cause Health Problems Residents Say

CTV medical specialist, Avis Favaro, interviewed Bill and Helen Fraser of Melancthon, Ontario, and Ernie Marshall from Shelburne, Ontario, regarding the health problems caused by living with wind turbines.Click here to see the video

Delay Denial and Disappointment - An Analysis of the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) of Ontario - "The Potential Health Impacts of Wind Turbines May 2010"

Toronto - ON-June 3, 2010 - In a strongly worded document released today, The Society for Wind Vigilance states that the CMOH Report: The Potential Health Impacts of Wind Turbines "appears to be a government convened attempt to justify unsound practices of wind turbine development while denying the adverse health effects reported by Ontario families". On its website, www.windvigilance.com it states, "The Society for Wind Vigilance expresses both its surprise and disappointment with the quality of the CMOH's report. The victims deserve consideration not denial."Rather than calling for the development of authoritative setbacks and noise guidelines based on independent third party clinical research The Society says Dr. Arlene King, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health decided to invest approximately seven months to produce a 14 page literature review with no original research. Click here to read more...The full report is available here

Dr. Christopher Hanning concludes in Sleep disturbance and wind turbine noise"... there is compellng evidence that wind turbine noise can and does disturb sleep and impair the health of those living too close and that current guidance is inadequate protection.""In my expert opinion, from my knowledge of sleep physiology and a review of the available research, I have no doubt that wind turbine noise emissions have been clearly associated with sleep disturbances."

Dr. Hanning has nearly 30 years experience in sleep and its disorders. His expertise in this field has been accepted by the civil, criminal and family courts. Further details about his credentials are cited in the article.Click here to read the full report

Download Full Report: The Dean – Waubra Wind Farm Report July 2010Excerpt: Further research has shown that the acoustic energy from wind turbines is capable of resonating houses, effectively turning them into three-dimensional loud speakers in which the affected residents are now expected to live.The phenomenon of natural resonance combines to produce a cocktail of annoying sounds which not only disturb the peace and tranquility once enjoyed by the residents, but also stimulate a number of disturbing physiological effects which manifest in the physical symptoms described above.

In the opinion of the author, backed up by residents' surveys and scientific measurements and analysis of the noise of turbine can be a significant detractor for those living within 10 kilometers of them.

W5 - Caution to the Windposted December 27, 2008

News story televised by W5 on December 27, 2008, concerning the various health impacts experienced by residents near the Melancthon EcoPower Centre, near Orangeville, Ontario.Excerpt: "... Helen Fraser wasn't at the opening of the Melancthon EcoPower Centre. But she's all-too familiar with the turbines. According to Fraser, she and her husband lived just over 400 meters from one of the turbines erected in phase one of the project. At first she had no problem with the fact that a wind farm was coming to her rural area. "I thought this was absolutely amazing. [I was] all for green" said Fraser. But soon after the 45 meter blades -- longer than the wingspan of a Boeing 737 -- started spinning, she said she knew something was wrong.

"It was like a whoosh sound. It would just go whoosh-whoosh, like a steady beat with it. And there would be times my heart would actually beat to the pulse of the turbine," she recalled.

Even though the turbines' distance from the Fraser's home satisfied the Ontario government's noise guidelines, the sound and strobing effect when the sun was shining through the spinning blades made them too close for comfort - at least for the Frasers.

"I had terrible headaches, body aches. I couldn't sleep at night," said Fraser. "My husband's blood sugar, because he has diabetes, was all over the map." When the couple went away on vacation, they say the problems stopped.

Fraser and her family eventually sold their property to Canadian Hydro Developers, the company behind the wind farm, and their former home sits in the shadow of a giant, spinning wind turbine. "Click here to read more... (NOTE: This website also contains the links to the video of Part One and Part Two of the program as aired on W5)

Low Frequency Noise, Infrasound and Wind Turbines

Wind turbines generate a broad spectrum of noise including low frequency noise and infrasound which may be audible or inaudible.It is widely affirmed that exposure to audible low frequency noise can cause adverse health effects in humans.Low frequency noise can cause "...immense suffering to those who are unfortunate to be sensitive to low frequency noise and who plead for recognition of their circumstances." Click here to read more...

Things you need to know - A public service announcement produced by the Concerned Residents of Grey Highland

Some FACTS regarding your health:"I can tell you, definitely and unequivocally, that wind turbines of the size you are contemplating do, in fact, cause harm to human health when placed within 2 km of people's homes. I don't know what you're being told by the wind developers, but if it differs from what I've said above, they are misleading you." - Dr. Nina Pierpont, MD, PhDThere is no peer-reviewed, scientific report written by a certified clinician (one who has an MD degree) that disputes Dr. Pierpont's conclusion above. Her views are supported by eminent research scientists, distinguished academics and medical bodies around the world.Wind turbine set-backs from residences in Grey Highlands are only 400 metres compared to the 2 kms recommended above and and the 1.5 kms endorsed by the French National Academy of Medicine which has studied the health and safety effects of wind turbines in Europe.Click here to read more...

Noise from modern wind turbines is not known to cause hearing loss, but the low frequency noise and vibration emitted by wind turbines may have adverse health effects on humans and may become an important community noise concern. Click here to read more...

200 Picton area residents braved frigid temperatures Thursday night to hear about the serious health risks associated with Industrial Wind Turbines.Dr. Magda Havas Ph.D., Associate Professor of Environmental and Resource Studies at Peterborough’s Trent University and one of the world’s leading research experts in the areas of electromagnetic pollution, radio frequency radiation, ground current and dirty electricity delivered alarming warnings about the dangers to human and animal health, posed by Industrial Wind Turbines.Dr. Havas was the featured speaker in Picton. Havas identified two significant problem areas that pose substantive threats to the health of those living or working in proximity to wind turbine developments – Infrasound or Low Frequency Sound emitted by the turbines themselves and both Dirty Electricity and stray voltage related to the electricity produced by turbines.The human body feels and reacts to sound waves that we cannot hear. These waves, in the low end of the sound spectrum (under 20 Hz), are well documented to cause nausea, joint pain, insomnia, depression, agitation, increased blood pressure and possible heart problems. It is also a major cause of Vibroacoustic Disease which can lead to vision problems, digestive problems, cardiovascular problems, and circulatory difficulties. Click here to read more...

There is a disconnect between the setbacks of modern up-wind blade wind turbines from homes as recommended by health authorities and as determined from the noise guidelines of various jurisdictions. Typically, health authorities recommend 1.5 to 2 km while noise guidelines allow setbacks of 400 to 500 metres. The resolution lies in the inadequacy of noise guidelines. There are a number of reasons for the inadequacy: The typical allowance of 10 dBA above background noise; the characteristic periodic or impulsive sound of a turbine; the continuing use, in Ontario and New Zealand, of masking from ground-level wind noise to allow permissible turbine noise to increase with wind speed; the absence of turbulent inflow noise in noise guidelines and assessmentns; the absence of coherent sound reflection from the ground in the calculation of turbine noise at a receptor. Click here to read more...